Members’ meetings are held three times each year. All members are required to commit to attending at least two meetings each year.

2019 Members’ Meetings

Goodwill Community Campus

408 9th St. SW Canton, Oh 44707

from 2pm to 4pm:

Monday, March 11

Monday, July 15

Monday, November 18

Stark County Homeless Services Collaborative

Who We Are

The Homeless Services Collaborative (HSC, or the Collaborative) has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Homeless Continuum of Care of Stark County (HCCSC) that defines the relationship between the two entities. The Collaborative conducts the annual Point in Time Count and sponsors an annual event called Project Homeless Connect (more information about these efforts below).

The Collaborative is a group of local agencies that provide direct service to homeless clients and others who have an interest in addressing homelessness. Its focus is to end homelessness by identifying gaps in the homeless system and devising solutions to eliminate those gaps and to improve service delivery.

Meetings

Meetings are generally held on the third Wednesday of every month at 2:00 at the Canton YWCA. Anyone interested can attend the meetings, but voting members are asked to sign a Memorandum of Understanding.

History of Homeless Services Collaborative

The Collaborative was created in 1988 to assess and address the community’s affordable housing needs. In 1994, the Collaborative’s role expanded and the group developed a more formal system of collaboration that would meet HUD’s requirements for Continuum of Care (CoC) Funding. The Collaborative’s role continued to evolve as they participated in the CoC application process and the establishment of the HMIS system. With the implementation of the HEARTH Act, these duties became the responsibility of HCCSC.

The Collaborative is now a partner with the HCCSC and provides support and feedback to the CoC process. It provides training and information to service providers, and many of its members serve on HCCSC committees.

Project Homeless Connect

Each year, the Collaborative organizes the Project Homeless Connect event to link homeless individuals and families with the services that they need. A variety of service agencies are available at one location to share information with the homeless and the general public. Haircuts, health screening, lunches and other helpful items are provided. For more information, see the Project Homeless Connect website at www.phcstark.org.

Point in Time Count

Each year, HUD requires communities receiving CoC grants to conduct a Point in Time Count in January. The purpose of the count is to get a snapshot of the number of homeless individuals and families in Stark County. The Collaborative’s membership assumes the lead in organizing and conducting the count in cooperation with HCCSC. Click here for more information about the Point in Time Count.

Contact Information

Other Groups …

Several Stark County groups work on addressing issues of specific subpopulations of homeless or aspects of the homelessness problem, and their work often complements the work that HCCSC does. If you are interested in getting involved with any of them, please see contact information below.

State and National Resources and Conferences

For additional information about the efforts to end homelessness throughout our country and our state, please click the links below. Several of the organizations listed have annual conferences and other events; find their Events pages to get the details.

September & October 2019
HMIS Training & Agency Meeting Dates

*Note about HMIS 101: If you are a new staff member at an agency and need HMIS 101 Training, please schedule a one-on-one session with either Jennifer Keaton or Teresa Ponchak at StarkMHAR.

All trainings are located at:

Goodwill Community Campus

408 9th St. SW, Canton, OH 44707

A note about the photography…

Many of the photos used on the HCCSC pages are from Pixabay users, including Leroy Skalstad. Because they are posted on Pixabay, the photographers receive no royalties for them. However, if you would like to support Leroy, click the button below to go to his page and find the “coffee” button to donate.